Petition Tag - gay rights

Supporting rights to love and have happiness, rights our founding fathers gave us, i wanted to show the people who makes our laws that it isn't fair that they wanna take away our rights as a person and how would they feel if some one said no you can't marry this person cause your gay or lesbian or bi-sexual or some other oritation.

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be donbale dastgirie tedadi az dostane gay dar frodgahe shiraz.... va hamle be manazele anha va zabte computer va vasayele shakhsi va bi etelaie az vaziate anha.

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My thoughts on gay marriage: Why isn't it already legal? It shouldn't even be a public vote. It is taking away people's rights.

I'm not very religious but I will take a religious point of view on this part: if god created us and he gave gay people those feelings why are we denying the right for gay marriage?

Sign if you think these are true.

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***NOTE!!!*** AFTER YOU HAVE SIGNED THIS PETITION, PLEASE HELP US TO DELIVER IT TO TARGETS AROUND THE WORLD BY JOINING THIS URGENT ACTION:
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In Iran, a court has sentenced four men from the town of Choram, in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, to death by hanging for sodomy.

Four men named ‘Saadat Arefi’, ‘Vahid Akbari’, ‘Javid Akbari’ and ‘Houshmand Akbari’ are due to be executed shortly after their verdict was approved recently by high court judges, according to a report from the Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) in Iran.

The four men are said to be from the town of Choram, in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province of Iran.

According to HRANA and JOOPEA, these four men will be hanged for sodomy according Shari’a law.

A gay activist based in Iran said: ‘Although being gay is not a crime based on Iranian criminal law but this is the most clear statement against same sex-acts in past months.’

He added that ‘there wereof our other men hanged in past five months.’

London based Iranian Human Rights Lawyer, Mehri Jafari said: ‘I am horrified and saddened to have heard the news about these four men. Not only with regards to the execution which is about to take place, but the fact that is beyond our control.

‘There are two important issues in this case; the location of the alleged occurrence and the interpretation of the Sharia’ law that a Hodud (strict Sharia punishment) is eminent. Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad is one of the most undeveloped provinces in Iran and it is obvious that a lack of access to lawyers and fair trial can be considered a serious issue in this case. After this announcement it is very likely that the execution will be carried out soon, and the remote location makes it difficult to exert any influence on the process.’

Mehri further pleaded: ‘I hope international organisations act quickly and effectively on this specific case.’

Gorji Marzban chairperson of the Austrian-based Oriental Queer Organization (ORQOA) said: ‘The recent death sentence for the four Iranian men is a shocking reality and demonstrates the discrepancy between Western and Islamic perception of queer life. The rhetoric of announcement makes the link between same-sex sexual activity, or sodomy with corporal punishment very clear. Last month the Iranian authorities hanged a young man and the local news agencies/authorities were intentionally unclear about the reason for the death penalty. In the case of these four men we have a clear text attributing the reason for hanging is sodomy.

‘The judicial denial of same-sex relationships in Iran stems from its relationship to Shari’a law and patriarchy. This is a warning signal not only for the queer population of Iran but also for all types of gender inclusive the heterosexuals who have sexual relations outside marriage.

‘The death penalty has failed to eradicate homosexuality from Iran but it was successful to force queer people into the closets. Sooner or later any Islamic community is obliged to integrate queer people. We believe that Iranians should gain more gender equality and rights and wholly condemn such an archaic sentence to murder which is inherently unislamic!’

Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its 2011 - We are a Buried Generation: Discrimination and Violence Against Sexual Minorities in Iran - stated that because trials on moral charges in Iran are usually held in closed sessions, it is difficult to determine what proportion of those charged and executed for same-sex conduct are gay and in what proportion the alleged offense was consensual.

Because of the lack of transparency, Human Rights Watch said: ‘It cannot be ruled out that Iran is sentencing sexual minorities who engage in consensual same-sex relations to death under the guise that they have committed forcible sodomy or rape.’

The issue of the death penalty for same-sex acts is further compounded by the fact that the Iranian legal code does not differentiate between rape and homosexual acts.

Furthermore, in many cases, it is often unclear whether the accused has actually committed a sexual act or it is a mere accusation based on some dispute. Even in the cases where the same-sex act has happened, often it is not clear whether the individuals involved are actually gay or it is an occasional act of sexual gratification.

Iranian Human Rights activists constantly note the fact that the two genders are strictly segregated increases the tendency for same-sex acts among the youth, in a phenomena that is also similarly known in single gender prisons. Indeed this phenomenon happens throughout highly segregated societies in the Middle East and North Africa.

***NOTE!!!*** AFTER YOU HAVE SIGNED THIS PETITION, PLEASE HELP US TO DELIVER IT TO TARGETS AROUND THE WORLD BY JOINING THIS URGENT ACTION:
http://bit.ly/KZ1obX

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We have no rights as straight people do and we deserve to be treated with the same respect.

Acceptance of LGBT persons in the Americas varies widely. Same-sex marriages have been recognized in Canada nationwide since 2005 and in Argentina since 2010. Same-sex marriage in Mexico City is recognized nationwide, while in the United States, same-sex marriages are recognized by several states, but not the federal government. Same-sex marriage in Brazil is recognized in one state and in many cities of the country.

Same-sex marriages performed in the Netherlands are recognized in Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. Furthermore, some other nations have laws recognizing other types of same-sex unions, as well as LGBT adoption and military service by LGBT people. However, eleven other nations, all of them in the former British West Indies, still have criminal punishment for buggery on their statute books. These eleven countries include Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.

See wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_the_Americas

kandygirl44@gmail.com

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In the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, it is stated:

Section 3. Definition of marriage
In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word 'marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

Yet, the Obama administration announced in 2011 that it had determined that Section 3 was unconstitutional and, though it would continue to enforce the law, it would no longer defend it in court.

Why should gay marriage be bound to a law that our own presidential administration states is unconstitutional? We fight for our freedoms. Some men and women in the military, and on our homefronts in the law enforcement, fire department, and EMS departments, are bi-sexual, lesbian, or gay.

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In Australia the Australian Red Cross do not allow Gay/Bi Men to donate blood.

Every Blood Donation is tested so there should be no risk of any infection from Stright or Homosexual people.

For every blood donation made up to 3 peoples lives can be saved. There are thousands of Gay/Bi Men who are willing to donate blood. So if you multiply them (1000's) by 3 that is how many lives could by saved by allowing Gay/Bi Men to Donate Blood.
Or worse think of how many people may die/suffer without there donations.

Other countries already allow Gay/Bi Men to donate blood including Isreal, Switzerland & Spain.

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Gay people have been around for longer than anyone alive today, why stop gay people to live a happy normal life, what makes gays so different to everyone else, THEY DESERVE TO BE HAPPY LIKE THE REAST OF US.

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After the case of a Lesbian couple in a Civil Partnership who tried to adopt a baby as a couple, the European Court of human rights has deemed that same sex marriage is not a human right and “if gay couples are allowed to marry, any church that offers weddings will be guilty of discrimination if it declines to marry same-sex couples.”

I do however ask the European Court, is Equality not a human right? and are they not being discriminatory by issuing this statement? I would also suggest that as this does not affect the government as a whole, it should be up to the people to decide in the form of a referendum.

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On February 9, 2012 a newspaper Delo# published an article "A gang of prostitutes."
This article is written in a vulgar and insulting tone. It stigmatizes and demeans the human dignity of homosexual people.

9 февраля 2012 года газета Дело№ опубликовала статью «Шайка проститутов».

Эта статья написана в вульгарном, оскорбительном тоне. Она стигматизирует и унижает человеческое достоинство гомосексуальных людей.

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The Constitution clearly states everyone has the same rights. Also, people who get amnesia/alzheimers still know they are gay, so it's not s "choice".

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For support of the gay rights in Slovenia!
Za sprejetje Družinskega zakonika v Sloveniji!

By signing this petition you appeal to the Slovenian government not to hold the referendum and to approve the proposal of the government 542-08/09-0008/ EPA: 0817-V, "Družinski zakonik" (Family Code), which extends civil marriage to lesbian and gay couples and puts heterosexual and homosexual partnerships on an equal legal footing, including extending the right of same-sex partners to adopt.

On 16 June 2011, Parliament endorsed in a 43:38 vote the family law bill defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman but abandoning the reference to family as the purpose of marriage [R1.3].

On 27 December 2011, the Slovenian Constitutional Court ruled that the holding referendum on the recently approved Family Code was constitutional. The Code is being challenged by conservative pro-family groups over the right of gay couples to adopt children. The referendum is expected to be held in March 2012.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/02/25/slovenia-letter-slovenian-members-parliament

http://www.mddsz.gov.si/en/

http://www.gaylawnet.com/laws/si.htm

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There are many technical definitions of marriage:

1.) The social institution in which a man and a woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments.

2.) The legal or religious ceremony that formalizes the decision of two people to live as a married couple including the accompanying social festivities.

So, if their is a definition that excludes the joining of a man and women why aren't same genders allowed to get married? That blows my mind.

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Currently there is a ban on homosexual males from donating blood. Not only is this discrimination but it is also completely irresponsible.

Canadian Blood Services need blood, and there is an entire community willing to donate but can't. They run extensive tests on the blood, there should be no reason they should eliminate an entire community from donating.

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America is supposed to be a free country, but in fact it is not free , this is a country who's freedom was bought and paid for by the men and women you shed blood and tears to give EACH and EVERY person rights to live how they want to live within the law.

Some of those men and some of those women who fought for the very rights that we have were homosexual, was there blood not good enough to give you your rights? Then why should we all not be treated as equals not as conditions.

I ask for the right to marry my partner whom I love now and forever I want the same chance to give her my last name as any divorced over and over again heterosexual. Bottom line our senators and congressmen don't ask our permission when that throw their vows away taking a hooker to a fancy hotel that we the tax payers pay for, why should I ask their permission to show the world that I love my WIFE!

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In recent years the homosexual community has been slowly getting some rights all except the one they all want.

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Stop Cameroon From Attacking The Gay Community.

REPEAL HOMOPHOBIC LAWS.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL JUST REPORTED THE CASE OF FRANCKY AND JONAH, 19 AND 20 YEAR OLD YOUNG MEN AWAITING TRIAL FOR HOMOSEXUAL CONDUCT (THEY CROSS DRESS). ANOTHER YOUNG MAN MR. JEAN-CLAUDE ROGER MBEDE WAS JAILED FOR THREE YEARS FOR HOMOSEXUAL ACT AFTER HE WAS ENTRAPPED BY SECURITY FORCES.

FOR HOW LONG WILL THE WORLD BE SILENT ABOUT THE PROBLEM OF HOMOSEXUALS IN AFRICA AS A WHOLE? PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO BE FORWARDED TO BOTH THE HUMAN RIGHT COMMISSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE CAMEROONIAN GOVERNMENT. SILENCE IS COMPLICITY.

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It was estimated in 2011 that over 9 million Americans are either Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual, or Transgender. If there is such a shortage for blood donors, then WHY can't a gay man donate blood?

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Despite the Supreme Court's ruling in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, North Carolina still has laws against consensual sex between two adults, if they are gay. While not prosecuted in courts, as recently as 2008, gay adults found engaged in intercourse could be arrested under "crimes against nature" laws, a Class 1 felony, and could be forced into a stay in jail and a fine.

Using these same laws and by exploiting loopholes in the Supreme Court's ruling, heavier punishments are able to be levied on homosexual couples than they would be on heterosexual couples. To quote the North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Legal Association: "a heterosexual couple "parking" at night in a deserted area or making love in the woods will most likely be ignored by law enforcement officers. At most, they will be charged with indecent exposure, a misdemeanor. Two men in an identical situation, however, will usually be charged with [crimes against nature]—a felony"

We, as North Carolinians, do not deserve to live in a state where Dark-Ages laws are still on the books and are used to discriminate against homosexual citizens. The Supreme Court of the United States has already decided that these kinds of laws are unconstitutional, so we should demand that our state government act in accordance and repeal the shameful sodomy laws.

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The Marriages Act needs to be completely overhauled in Australia at a federal level.

GLBTI Australians are missing out on contributing fully to advancing Australia because they cannot participate fully in activities that have made our culture and our nation great! Marriage laws need to reflect that Australians live in a changing world.

Love knows no boundaries, love knows no law, love is blind to gender and deaf to rules and regulations.

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Parents and teachers should have a say in what our kids learn in school.

I have never heard of any gay history that our kids need to learn. There is hardly enough money for our kids to learn what they need to in school why should we add to it.

We can't talk about GOD in schools and i feel that if you put gay history in our schools then you are looking at a problem with the church and state law.

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Syrian blogger Amina Arraf, who blogs under the name Amina Abdullah and whose blog A Gay Girl in Damascus has readers all over the world, has been missing since Monday night, June 6. She was seized by three armed men suspected of being security agents, and bundled into a waiting car.

Amina's blog "A Gay Girl in Damascus" has readers all over the world. Abdallah, who has used her blog to challenge taboos in the conservative country where homosexuality is illegal but unofficially tolerated, had feared she would be abducted.

Abdallah, 35, had previously written about how her father prevented security agents from arresting her for being an Islamic extremist and a foreign agent.

Amina's father has been desperately trying to find out where she is and who has taken her, but there are at least 18 different police formations in Syria as well as multiple different party militias and gangs -- since Amina's family does not know who took her, they do not know who to ask to get her back. They fear she is being deported or has been imprisoned, or could even have been killed.

Press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders says Syrian security officials have arrested numerous bloggers and journalists as part of a widespread crackdown on challenges to President Bashar al-Assad's grip on power.

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For more information about the campaign please visit http://speakout4davidkato.wordpress.com/

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Recently a bill has been introduced by South Australian Labor MLC Ian Hunter and Greens MLC Tammy Frank to legalise same-sex marriage. This petition aims to support this bill, giving gay couples the rights they deserve.

Many forward thinking countries recognise that the gay community should have the same opportunities to express their love and commitment.

However, Australia only recognises domestic partnerships. With your support, South Australia can lead the way to equality.

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2011 marks the 25th anniversary of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. It is one of the largest and most successful film festivals in the UK, with annual attendances of 28,000, and one of the UK’s most significant LGBT cultural events.

During this time the festival has played a vital cultural role, bringing audiences together to debate and discuss an extraordinary diversity of important work. It provides a space and platform for emerging talent, for provocative and political films, for innovation. Very little of this filmmaking can be seen in the UK outside of the festival. The BFI is to be congratulated for 25 years of commitment.

However, this year’s festival will be a shadow of its former self, with a radically cut-down programme of 6 days, rather than 14 and a substantial reduction of the activities and facilities that have made it an internationally acclaimed event. Of particular concern is the loss of the annual tour of festival highlights that ensured that the festival was enjoyed by audiences across the UK.

With 15% cuts to funding as a result of the government’s spending review, the BFI is necessarily having to tighten its belt. As such it’s understandable that some cuts need to be made to its activities. However, we are deeply concerned that the substantial cuts WELL ABOVE 15% to the 2011 festival will hinder this year's success and are a move towards the BFI severing its responsibilities for the event. Few festivals thrive - or indeed survive - without the support and commitment of a major cultural body. If the BFI was to drop the LLGFF we fear for its future.

Furthermore, we understand that the BFI will reviewing the future of the festival in April after the 2011 event and we urge Amanda Nevill (amanda.nevill@bfi.org.uk) Greg Dyke (greg.dyke@bfi.org.uk) and Board of Governors at BFI, Ed Vaizey (vaizeye@parliament.uk) and Boris Johnson (mayor@london.gov.uk) to ensure that:

The BFI commits to organising and hosting the annual LLGFF as an integral part of its cultural programme.

The BFI commits to ensure that the festival reaches out to audiences across the UK through a tour of cinemas or by making films available through its online platforms.

The BFI explores ways to reduce expenditure while maintaining the integrity of the festival’s programme, and in particular safeguards such vital elements as length of programme, pay for the festival curators, some industry services, and a budget to help filmmakers attend the Festival to present their work.

The BFI explores new avenues for support from individual donors.

The BFI considers the impact on its own membership base (25% of BFI members book tickets for the LLGFF) if it was to drop the festival.

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Respect and tolerance is fundamental to enabling individuals, regardless of religion, gender, socio-economic status or sexual orientation, to claim and enjoy their human rights.

J-FLAG continues to observe and articulate the implications of the absence of a specific legal instrument to protect and promote the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Jamaicans. While the enactment of laws alone will not change the engrained discrimination within our society, the presence of discriminatory laws coupled with the lack of specific protections continue to contribute to the high incidences of stigma, discrimination, harassment and other forms of abuse as well as death of Jamaicans who are, and in some cases perceived to be gay or lesbian.

In 2010, J-FLAG received and documented over forty incidences of human rights abuses meted out to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Jamaica. For example, there were two mob invasions of the homes of men suspected to be gay in February. On separate occasions, two females were raped by men who attempted to sexually cleanse them and make them heterosexual women. Additionally, two gay men were violently murdered including a cross-dresser known as “Charm” in December 2010, because they identify as gay.

In the majority of cases, there have been little or no thorough investigation and/or prosecutions for such inhumane acts unless the case has been labeled ‘high profile’. Jamaica’s adoption of the OAS Resolutions 2435 and 2504 on ‘Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity’ in 2008 and 2009 is in keeping with the United Nations Resolution on Extrajudicial Killings which binds Jamaica “to investigate promptly and thoroughly all killings, including… all killings committed for any discriminatory reason, including sexual orientation”. These resolutions symbolize a commitment by the Government of Jamaica to protect persons on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity from human rights abuses.

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To mark LGBT History month this year, students and Labour activists at the University of Southampton are sending Valentine's cards with a twist. They're not signed by anonymous admirers - instead, they contain a message of equal love signed by hundreds of people.

The campaigners are collecting signatures on a petition asking the three major parties to support full marriage equality, opening up marriage to same-sex couples and civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples.

Same-sex couples can currently have civil partnerships but not marriage in the UK. Although civil partnerships offer the same rights as marriage, we believe it is unfair to have separate insititutions for different couples. There are also certain practical differences - for instance, married transgender people have to divorce if they want a gender change to be legally recognised, while at present if you tick "civil partnership" on a form you have effectively outed yourself.

Although marriage and civil partnerships offer the same rights, there are many reasons why we need marriage equality:

1) Fundamentally, separate but equal is not equal. We should not have separate legal institutions for different couples.

2) Marriage has special cultural associations. Some gay people want to get married because they think it's a gold standard - and some straight people want a civil partnership because they find the associations of marriage problematic. It should be their choice, not the government's, whether they have a marriage or a civil partnership.

3) At present, if a married transgender person wants to have their change of gender legally recognised, they have to get a divorce.

4) Marriage has a special significance for some religions and many of them (such as the Quakers) want to be able to carry out same-sex marriages for their members.

5) At the moment, if you tick "civil partnership" on a government form, you automatically out yourself - it's an invasion of privacy.

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Everyone has the right to love who they want. It's one of many freedoms this country prides itself on. Though in truth, not everyone is allowed to be together. In spirit, true, but not in legal matrimony.

If what everyone says is true, and that gender doesn't affect the way you think, why should we let it affect how we love?

You may wonder what use two people of the same gender marrying may be. Its normally a religious act, right? Not as much as it used to be; nowadays, two people can't legally adopt a child together unless they are married. Also, if one of them dies, the other cannot receive their life insurance to help bury them and will not get any of their possessions.

Is it okay to keep a happy couple from raising a child together, or to keep someone from burying their loved one? I don't think so, I think they should have the same rights any straight couple has. If you believe so too, please sign this petition.

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On Nov. 30, 2010, the Smithsonian Institution (USA) removed "A Fire in My Belly," a work of video art by gay artist David Wojnarowicz from the National Portrait Gallery, caving in to a 2-day pressure campaign by anti-gay groups and politicians, who threatened the institution's public funding. (Watch censored video here.)

Ironically, the work was part of an exhibit highlighting the marginalization of gay people, called "Hide/Seek," the first such exhibit in a public museum in the United States. (See www.hideseek.org for more information.)

Museum Officials Caved In to False Charges, Censored Work

The "objectionable" content was 11 seconds of a 4-minute video; the brief imagery within the larger work consisted of a crucifix crawling with ants, an image of the late artist's feelings of abandonment and isolation as he was dying of AIDS in 1980s America.

Anti-gay forces knowingly mischaracterized the work as "an obvious attempt to offend Christians during the Christmas season," even though the exhibit opened in October 2010 and is scheduled to run through February 2011.

Protesters Banned From Museum

When free-speech protesters attempted to restore the art to the museum, they were SILENCED, DETAINED, and BANNED from all Smithsonian facilities. (Watch the protest video here, and read the news coverage here and here.)

Smithsonian Continues Long Tradition of Silencing Gay Americans

Just as gay- and AIDS-related art was censored by the U.S. government in the 1980s, it's still happening today. AND WE REFUSE TO BE MADE INVISIBLE AGAIN.

Tell the Smithsonian -- which is part of the U.S. government -- that there is room in America for ALL people and ALL points of view.

Tell the Smithsonian to stop censoring art!

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"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

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